German Social Democracy is faced with tremendous challenges of societal and economic changes: party dealignment, a bourgeoisifying of society, the rise of media democracy and economic and cultural globalisation. The party's reaction - a third order change in its ideological objectives and a respective adjustment in its short term policy programme as the leading governing party in the red-green coalition (AGENDA 2010) - is being investigated under the conditions of bounded rationality of voters and against the backround of an unprecedented loss in acceptance by the electorate as well as the ordinary party member.